You Are a Planeswalker

Brady DommermuthThursday, August 16, 2007

You are a planeswalker. In the vast Multiverse, only you and your kind know of the countless worlds beyond your own. You have seen realities that would make a mundane wizard cower in awe. You have laid eyes upon the Blind Eternities. You are an iconoclast with an arsenal of sorcery at your command. Your gift drives you to seek out Magical knowledge, to test your limits, to forge your destiny.

You are a planeswalker. Almost every Magic player has heard this phrase. Maybe it was the first thing they heard when being taught how to play by a friend. Maybe they didn't hear it until later, when they had already decided that Magic was their kind of game and they wanted to know more about its backstory. Or maybe they heard it as Richard Garfield did in 1993: in a dream.

Okay, planeswalkers didn't really come to Richard in a dream. In fact, the notion of the planeswalker arose somewhat naturally in the game's earliest days. In the first edition of the Magic: The GatheringPocket Players' Guide, published in March 1994, Richard wrote an essay (*) describing the nature of the Multiverse and its planeswalkers. In the very first issue of The Duelist magazine Richard sketched out how the Multiverse was conceived (**). The following year, John Tynes, then a writer for Magic, wrote an essay (***) describing Dominia (the Multiverse), Dominaria, and planeswalkers.

Much of what Garfield and Tynes wrote over a decade ago is still true today. Magic's setting is a boundless collection of planes called the Multiverse. The plane at its center, where many Magic storylines have been set, is the plane of Dominaria. (The Multiverse is called Dominia by planeswalkers, but that term isn't often used because of "Dominia"/"Dominaria" confusion.) Only a planeswalker can travel across these planes of existence, through the endless æther known as the Blind Eternities. And only those with "the spark" can become planeswalkers. All these things are true both before and after the Mending.

Wait, what?

Maybe some explanation is in order. As the hardcore storyline fans will tell you, even I have trouble keeping it straight.

Multiverse. The name of the place that contains the countless planes of fantasy in Magic: The Gathering. The Multiverse is sometimes called Dominia by planeswalkers.

Plane. A plane can take any shape, from a tiny, featureless speck to a sprawling universe that contains multiple worlds. Because the Multiverse is boundless, it contains every fantasy plane imaginable, whether it's Lorwyn, Ravnica, or a plane filled entirely with fudge and bunny rabbits.

Dominaria. The plane at the center of the Multiverse, once rich with mana, now recovering from multiple cataclysms. The brothers Urza and Mishra and the crew of the skyship Weatherlight were all Dominarians. Dominaria was also the epicenter of the temporal-planar fractures that threatened the Multiverse itself. These rifts were mended by planeswalkers during the events of the Time Spiral trilogy.

Planeswalker. A being whose innate "spark" has been awakened. Only a planeswalker can travel from one plane to another. Planeswalkers are always sentient and are almost always naturally talented spellcasters. They range from neophytes who know only a few simple spells to ancient archmages with a vast magical arsenal at their command.

The Spark. One in a million sentient beings are born with "the spark," the metaphysical property that makes an individual capable of becoming a planeswalker. Of those born with "the spark," one in a million will realize their potential as planeswalkers. The planeswalker spark should not be confused with The AllSpark, which must not fall into the hands of the evil Megatron.

Æther. The substance that connects all planes to each other. When a mage summons a creature, it is pulled through the æther by the spell that summoned it. The space between planes, called the Blind Eternities by planeswalkers, is filled mainly with æther.

Blind Eternities. A somewhat poetic term that refers to the space between planes. The Blind Eternities are a chaotic, logic-defying place of quasi-existence filled with æther. Only planeswalkers can survive there, and only for a limited time. Mortal beings without the planeswalker spark are soon destroyed by raw entropy and uncontained mana.

The Mending. The Multiverse-changing event that occurred when the last of the planar temporal rifts was closed during the Time Spiral plot. The Mending healed the fractures that spread outward from Dominaria across the Multiverse. These fractures were caused by the actions of powerful planeswalkers, and only planeswalkers could seal them. The Mending altered the nature of the planeswalker spark itself.

Now that the vocabulary lesson is over, it's time to tackle some tougher questions about planeswalkers and planeswalking.

What exactly is the planeswalker spark? Who decides who gets it and who doesn't?

The nature of the spark is a subject of philosophy, not science. Planeswalker sages have many theories about its origin, but because the Blind Eternities defy natural laws, those theories invariably involve metaphysics.

The most commonly held theory is that the lifeforce of all beings is "tethered" in the æther, and that when a sentient being's life begins, there is a remote chance that the being's lifeforce will be infused with the essence of the Blind Eternities themselves. In other words, the spark is an infinitesimally small fragment of the Blind Eternities that resides within a being's "soul." That metaphysical connection to the Multiverse is what enables planeswalking for the rare few who come to know how to tap into it.

Is there a greater intelligence that chooses which beings get the spark? This is not known. Some Dominarian planeswalkers believe that Gaea chooses. (Gaea is a god of life worshipped by many Dominarians.) Other planeswalkers believe the spark is a random phenomenon. Beliefs about the spark are as diverse as planeswalkers themselves.

How does someone with the spark become a full-fledged planeswalker?

Most beings with the spark live out their lives and die without ever realizing their potential. Among the few who do "ignite" their spark and become planeswalkers, the events that lead to that moment are as diverse as the five colors of mana.

For most, the spark is ignited as the result of a great crisis or trauma, such as a near-death experience. But the spark can be ignited by other means as well, such as a sudden, life-changing epiphany or a deep meditative trance in which a transcendental state is reached.

What caused the planar-temporal rifts in Time Spiral?

From the Future Sight Player's Guide

Hundreds of years have passed since the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria. So why hasn't the plane recovered by the time the events of the Time Spiral story unfold? The reason is mana. Worsening damage to Dominaria's planar fabric has caused the lands of the plane to be partially severed from their mana, disrupting the forces of growth and change that would enable Dominaria to heal.

Illus. rk post

The planar damage started many millennia ago. The brothers Urza and Mishra fought a war that ended when Urza unleashed the destructive power of the Golgothian Sylex, vaporizing the forest of Argoth in the process. That detonation was powerful enough to isolate Dominaria and several other nearby planes—"The Shard"—from the rest of the multiverse. This isolation brought on the Ice Age.

The next major planar rift was created when the planeswalker Freyalise cast a powerful spell that put the Shard back into its place in the multiverse and ended the Ice Age. Each subsequent planar catastrophe created a new rift in Dominaria's planar fabric, and each new rift worsened the others. Because Dominaria is a planar nexus of the multiverse, the effects of these rifts spread beyond Dominaria, affecting other planes in unexpected ways:

On Kamigawa, the damage weakened the veil between the utsushiyo (material realm) and kakuriyo (spirit realm). This enabled the daimyo Konda and his moonfolk accomplices to use powerful magic to pull an aspect of O-Kagachi, the kami of all kami, through the veil, thus beginning the Kami War.

On Ravnica, the plane became isolated from the rest of the Multiverse, causing the spirits of the dead to linger and accumulate there, eventually resulting in the Ghost Quarter of Agyrem.

By the time the planeswalker Teferi at last determined that Dominaria was endangering not only its own existence but the rest of the multiverse as well, the damage to the planar fabric had begun to manifest in both space and time, causing temporal anomalies all over the plane.

With the help of the half-Keldon Radha, Teferi eventually made a breakthrough: Perhaps he could heal the rift by aligning his own essence with the rift's, creating a kind of mana resonance between his boundless planeswalker spark and the boundless mana appetite of the rift. Only a planeswalker could achieve this, and the planeswalker would likely be killed in the process. Teferi decided to test the theory, at the rift where the land of Shiv was to phase back into Dominaria's reality.

Teferi assumed the mending of the rift would kill him, but he emerged alive. One thing was missing, though. Teferi's actions had closed the rift using his planeswalker spark as a kind of catalyst or fuel. His spark was gone; he was no longer a planeswalker. He was mortal.

He now understood how Dominaria would have to be mended: For each rift, a planeswalker would have to give up immortality and power—and possibly life itself. Teferi and his friends began the hard work of seeking out planeswalkers to help, and that quest forms the basis of the Time Spiral block storyline.

What follows is a chart that chronicles Dominaria's mending at the hands of planeswalkers.

Rift

Cause of the rift

Planeswalkers who mended the rift

How mending was achieved

Fate of planeswalkers

Shiv

Teferi phased out most of the continent of Jamuraa at the beginning of the Phyrexian Invasion.

Teferi

In order to allow Shiv to phase in, taking its rightful place on Dominaria, Teferi attuned himself to the rift and closed the wound using his planeswalker spark to fuel the mending.

Teferi was made mortal and brought low.

Zhalfir

Teferi phased out a massive part of the continent at the beginning of the Phyrexian Invasion.

Jeska and Radha

Jeska, enraged by the disappearance of her friend Karn and manipulated by the evil planeswalker Leshrac, used Radha as a kind of living conduit to close the rift. Radha’s spark wasn’t consumed, but some of her lifeforce was.

Radha was nearly killed. The phased-out section of Zhalfir is lost forever, unable to phase back in.

Skyshroud/Keld

When the plane of Rath overlaid Dominaria, the planeswalker Freyalise forcibly relocated Skyshroud next to Keld to protect it.

Freyalise

Faced with the reality of her adopted home of Skyshroud being overrun by Phyrexian horrors from an alternate timeline, Freyalise entered the rift and surrendered her spark to save Skyshroud.

Freyalise was obliterated by the rift, and most of Skyshroud died with her.

Urborg

Volrath’s stronghold was the epicenter of Rath’s overlay of Dominaria

Windgrace

Windgrace realized his battle against both the shadow creatures of the stronghold and the alternate-timeline Phyrexians coming through the rift would be endless. So he attuned himself to the rift and in his last moments diffused his own essence into Urborg itself.

Windgrace is physically dead, although perhaps metaphysically alive within Urborg.

Tolaria

The site of Urza’s disastrous temporal experiments at the Tolarian Academy, as well as Barrin’s explosive last stand against against the Phyrexians during the Invasion.

Karn

The rift at Tolaria was too severe to be mended in the present day. Karn traveled back in time, to the moment before the wizard Barrin obliterated the island, countless Phyrexians, and himself. Karn was then able to enter the rift and mend it with the planeswalker spark passed on to him by Urza.

In the moment after the rift was mended, Karn seemed to realize something terrible and flung himself into the Blind Eternities, the void between planes.

Yavimaya

At the end of the Brothers’ War, Urza used the Golgothian Sylex to vaporize the nearby forest of Argoth.

Jeska, Radha, and Multani

Multani used his maro-sorcery to partially stabilize the rift. But Jeska, still under the influence of Leshrac, forcibly closed the rift, once again using Radha as a resonant mana-channel. When the weakened Multani tried to stop her, Jeska destroyed him.

Multani was lost, dispersed within Yavimaya. Radha lost her potential to become a planeswalker.

Madara

The site of the first battle between planeswalkers eons ago.

Nicol Bolas and Leshrac

Leshrac was unmasked, and in an epic moment, the Walker of Night and the elder dragon collided. In the end Nicol Bolas bested Leshrac and tossed him into the rift, which consumed him and his spark utterly.

Leshrac is dead.

Otaria

Karona, the incarnation of Dominaria’s Magic, was destroyed.

Jeska

Jeska, at last free of Leshrac’s control but tortured with guilt and pain over her losses and her actions, accepted that she must be the one to close the rift where Karona was felled. She entered the rift and disintegrated.

Jeska is dead. Her last act triggered the chain reaction that will close all remaining planar rifts. The Mending has begun.

What powers do planeswalkers have?

For millennia, being a planeswalker meant having inherent godlike power—so much power that planeswalkers' sanity tended to erode over time as they became more and more unable to identify with the cares and concerns of mortals. During this time, planeswalkers could move between planes with a thought, in an instant. They were ageless, could take any form they wished, and could call upon unimaginable amounts of mana to work magic. Planeswalkers didn't require food, water, air, or sleep. They could create and destroy entire planes of existence.

But this near-omnipotence caused the Multiverse itself to become unstable. As more planeswalkers fulfilled their potential, more of the chaotic energy of the Blind Eternities came to exist within the planes themselves. More importantly, when planeswalkers fully exploited their connection with the æther to wield cataclysmic magic, the fabric of the Multiverse itself began to tear under the strain. This led to a state of increasing temporal and planar entropy.

During the temporal crisis on Dominaria, as planeswalkers began to willfully rescind their sparks to close the rifts, the Blind Eternities began to pull the spark back into the æther like a drain sucking in water. When Jeska closed the last of the major rifts, it was as though the drain had been plugged. Dominaria's destruction was averted, the Multiverse was stabilized, and a new equilibrium reached between the spark and the Multiverse.

After the Mending, the link between the spark and natural talent in magic remains, as does the potential to walk the planes. Planeswalkers now age normally, however, and although their spells protect them from far more harm than a normal being could endure, they can be wounded, and they can die. Planeswalkers must eat, drink, breathe, and sleep. They cannot inherently change shape at will, and they must draw mana from the land like any mage.

Planeswalkers remain much, much more powerful than mundane mages, however. Their connection to the æther makes them savants of sorcery. Their access to mana is not limitless, but because they can move across the planes, they can tap into the mana of lands their mundane counterparts will never see. Biological needs such as food and sleep can be fulfilled or eliminated with powerful spells. And although they age, some planeswalkers have mastered magic that slows or even halts their aging.

Above all, the planeswalker's arsenal of spells dwarfs that of the average mundane mage. Although nonplaneswalking archmages can achieve great power, over time a planeswalker's explorations of the Multiverse will result in a far greater breadth of magical knowledge.

How does a planeswalker actually travel between planes? How does the process work?

Think of planeswalking as the most difficult spell a planeswalker knows—the one that never gets easier. No longer can a planeswalker blink like Jeannie and find themselves on another plane. The act of planeswalking requires full concentration and no small amount of mana.

The act itself differs from planeswalker to planeswalker, because each planeswalker's identity is an essential part of the ability. For one planeswalker, a shamanistic ritual must be performed. For another, planeswalking is the culmination of a long, dreamlike trance. The details of a given planeswalker's method are dependent on who they are, how much of the Multiverse they have seen, and perhaps most importantly, what color(s) of mana they can wield.

How many spells does a planeswalker know?

That varies widely. Just as a given plane might have a lamplighter who knows just one little fire spell as well as an archmage who has filled an entire spellbook, so too do planeswalkers run the gamut from inexperienced to insurmountable. Even the most callow of planeswalkers would know a dozen spells, though. Veteran planeswalkers might have mastered hundreds, including some of their own design.

I am a planeswalker?

You are a planeswalker.When you play Magic, you are a planeswalker locked in magical combat against another of your kind. Is it a battle over territory? An old grudge? A struggle for control of the Plane of Fudge and Bunnies? That's for you to decide.

* "Imagine a vast beach. The sand shifts constantly, moved mostly by the tide and the wind, but also by the creatures that scurry across it or burrow beneath. Subtler effects, like compression or changes in temperature, also make their mark. Sometimes the grains cling together, weathering as a single stone until they are broken apart by some other force.

Now, imagine that each of these grains of sand is its own world, and you begin to get a picture of how Dominia works. Dominia is a multiverse, a collection of universes. Usually, the inhabitants of a particular world have no interaction with the other universes; the live out their lives believing that their home is the 'One World.' Even when some cataclysm on a nearby plane affects the surrounding worlds, the occupants of those worlds can blame the gods, or perhaps invent nonexistent natural laws to explain the changes in their plane.

A small number of the multiverse's inhabitants, however, are fully aware of the existence of worlds outside their home plane. These planeswalkers, often called wizards, have learned to travel between planes. Most have also developed secret methods of tapping the resources of the various worlds, and rich worlds are guarded jealously.

The simplest form of planeswalking is to travel between touching planes. If two planes in Dominia touch, a wizard familiar with both planes can usually travel from anywhere on one of the planes to some location on the other. Of course, experienced wizards can control where they arrive better than less experienced ones can. A planeswalker can also travel between worlds that don't touch each other by walking through a potentially long series of intermediate planes that span the gap. Distance between two planes can be approximated by the number of intermediate worlds traveled through. Since travel between planes is rapid, even trips to extremely distant planes can be quick. However, if the region is unfamiliar, or the paths between planes even slightly unstable, the wizards may accidentally travel far astray or become lost. For this reason, planeswalkers traversing unfamiliar or shifting paths will take their time to make sure they are going to the correct plane each step of the way.

Even experienced planeswalkers cannot easily predict how the paths between planes will form and change. Some areas of Dominia remain in the same configuration for ages, and the paths that bind them shift only slightly. Others are in constant turmoil, making walking between worlds perilous. Some times a set of planes will crystallize, like sandstone on the beach; in these cases, travel between the united planes stabilizes, but the entire region may shift in relation to the rest of Dominia. Planeswalkers have been known to disappear entirely if the universe they currently inhabit relocates radically, or shifts free of Dominia itself.

Each plane has its own laws, though these can change as the plane shifts into new regions. Some planes have no domestic magic at all: wizards traveling in these regions must draw entirely on extraplanar resources. Others are so replete with magic that the occupants can be dangerous, even to wizards with the forces of many planes at their call. Planeswalkers who spend a great deal of time on a particular plane can often master the laws that govern it, allowing them to control the plane or at least tap its resources more effectively.

The resources of a plane can be called upon by lines which connect to that plane. These are invisible except to one who knows how to perceive them. The lines carried by a typical wizard will connect to many worlds of Dominia. The lines which provide wizards with raw energy for their spells, the mana lines, usually connect to the lands of the various planes. Lands in most parts of Dominia can be divided into five basic types, each of which provides energy for a different kind of magic. There is white mana, stemming from the more serene lands of the planes, which enables the magic of order, protection, and construction. There is black mana, bubbling forth from the more corrupt lands of the planes, and powers the magic of ruin death and decay. Green mana emanates from the wild lands and generates the magic of life and nature. From the oceans and islands of Dominia's planes comes blue mana, fueling the magic of artifice, water and air. Finally there is red mana, drawn from the mountainous regions, which drives the magic of destruction and chaos. Other lines will link to a wizard's minions, spells, or to artifacts from other worlds whose powers the wizards can draw on. A wizard uses the energy provided by the mana lines to call upon these other resources.

Lines will fade and become unreliable at great distances from the source; at extreme distances, they can vanish altogether. Extreme care is practiced by wizards that deal with these lines for any length of time. The others die out. The lines carry the power of worlds.

Planeswalkers answer to no higher authority, for no code of law is enforceable. You can't restrain a wizard because wizards can leave a plane they are on at any time. You can't banish a wizard because you can't effectively keep a wizard from entering a plane. Killing a wizard is possible, but difficult, since at a moments notice the intended victim could be dozens of planes away. Once they flee, you have no hope of tracking them through all the shifting worlds of Dominia. Even if you do manage to kill one there is no grantee that a wizard will stay dead. Wizards have been known to plan for their contingency, creating completely new bodies one their old ones are destroyed.

Planeswalkers tend to be individualistic and territorial. While there is some collusion between wizards and even a political structure of sorts in certain areas of Dominia, these are unstable as the paths between planes. Occasionally lesser wizards will form alliances to prevent more experienced hands from seizing anything of value. Just as often, though, these inexperienced wizards will search on their own for lines in out-of-the-way planes. Occasionally the more enterprising or foolhardy among them will attempt to jump another wizard's claim, but the results are unpredictable. They may have the stealth and speed to avoid a confrontation, but they often sacrifice control of the claim, and loose their own lines in the process. Yet no matter how inexperienced they are, no wizard can be taken lightly. They are travelers of the multiverse; only they can fully explore its infinite planes and harness its vast, unpredictable power.

Anything you can conceive of can be found in Dominia—but it is as hard to find as a specific grain of sand on an ever-shifting beach. And in your search you will have to contend with the planeswalkers, who, while not numerous, have a very wide influence."

** "The concept for Dominaria naturally extends from the concept of the game itself. In the game, players are given a piece of an unknown world. They will learn about the game universe by playing in it, talking about it, by trading, experimenting with cards. The natural evolution of the game involves the release of more cards so the game doesn't remain finite, but is always growing and changing. This extends to the concept of a multiverse, where there is endless possibility—not one world but many worlds. In Magic, the way the cards mix and match is weird; why, for example, would Arabian Nights cards be mixed in with the Ice Age cards? One way to understand this is through a multiverse of planes; the cards describe some small collection of planes, which expands and becomes more comprehensible as more cards are encountered."

*** "Dominia is a multiverse of constant change and unorthodox challenges. Worlds spin, planes shift, and realities collide more often than you or I blink our eyes. In an infinite multiverse of unguessable possibility and unending change, what is the most precious commodity to those who understand the nature of Dominia?

Stability.

Dominia has gods, though it was not created by gods. These gods roam from world to world, plane to plane, reaping the energies of each in the form of mana -- magical energy. They know each other by the common name of Planeswalkers. They are not omnipotent, or omniscient, but they are worlds beyond the vast majority of Dominia's inhabitants in both power and intellect. Planeswalkers alone know what mana is, and know the forms it takes. There are many wizards in Dominia who are not Planeswalkers, and who therefore know nothing of the five forms of mana. Nor do they know the secrets of planar travel, or of summoning creatures to your side in battle. These secrets, like all the spells seen in the game, are the exclusive provenance of the planeswalkers. Yet even these mighty beings, who can call to their service creatures from across space and time, fear change... and seek stability.

A planeswalker can not travel with complete freedom -- like all of nature, they are subject to the shifting planes. A sudden (but naturally occurring) wrench in the fabric of one plane's reality can leave a planeswalker cut off from the routes of travel they know best. To a planeswalker, the multiverse is a labyrinth of roads, gates, and mystical passages that is partially understood at best. Most planeswalkers can navigate fairly well as long as they stay on planes that are known to them. But if they should find themselves on an unknown plane, they must find a new way, a new passage, back to the planes they do know. Some planes, however, are moving so fast and so far that it could be years before a passage is again available. Planeswalkers do not routinely fear death, but they do fear loss of freedom and mobility. Many planeswalkers have been lost on strange planes so long that when they finally could return not only were they long-forgotten, but their knowledge of the paths between planes and the power sources they used to tap was hopelessly out of date.

To counter this fear, planeswalkers seek stability. They seek planes that have reliable, well-worn passages among them. They also seek diversity in both magical energy and natural life: energy to power their magics, and life to bend to their will. All of these things have been found, surrounding and enveloping a world known to the planeswalkers as Dominaria (DAH-min-ARR-ee-uh)—"the song of Dominia." It is on Dominaria and the planes it routinely touches that many Planeswalkers have come to reside.

Dominaria is a massive world, supporting a staggering variety of beings and cultures. The surface of Dominaria is divided into dozens of small continents, each of which developed more or less independently up to the point at which extended ocean travel and trade became common. The result is a nexus of small civilizations with very different beliefs, customs, and life forms.

But the influence of Dominaria extends beyond the surface of the world. For reasons even the planeswalkers do not comprehend, Dominaria has become the focus point for a variety of other planes which maintain either constant or frequent connections with it. These other planes are other universes, which touch Dominaria in a variety of locations and through a variety of methods. Some planes are always "in phase" with Dominaria, and many inhabitants don't even realize that they have passed from one plane to another -- the journey is routine and seamless. Other planes come and go, sometimes touching at the same point, sometimes not. Many of these plane-gates are understood by those who live in the area, and the times at which the planes touch are celebrated with festivals and excitement. Still other planes are drawn to Dominaria's stable presence, caress it briefly, and move on.

The stability of Dominaria and its sister planes have drawn the planeswalkers there. Dominaria is vast, and its sources of mana are large and easy to tap. The great variety of creatures present means that the planeswalkers have many, many beings to call on in their great magical duels. The ease with which a planeswalker can slip between Dominaria and its sister planes is very attractive to them. Given that the loser of a magical duel must leave the current plane, the variety and stability of intersecting planes is even more attractive. On other worlds, having to flee to the closest plane means not always knowing where you're going to end up. In the realms of Dominaria, however, the degree of safety in interplanar travel is a known quantity, and a comforting one.

Imagine a large globe, hanging in space, covered in gossamer webs. As it spins, single strands of fine silk unspool and extend from the globe like slender arms. Another smaller globe is drawn to the larger one and as it grows near it is caressed by a single thread. This thread melds with the smaller globe, forming a connection, and the two globes spin together. Other globes approach, and each in turn is caressed and caught by a thread til there are several firmly attached. Still others approach, are caressed and kissed, but then move on. Among those that stay, the threads occasionally break, but momentum keeps them in place until another thread can lay claim to it once more.

The large globe is the plane on which Dominaria resides. The smaller globes are not other worlds, but other planes. Those that are caught and held are the planes with which Dominaria has either constant or very frequent connections. Those that are touched but move on are those planes which form a connection only briefly, and might well never return again.

The stability provided by Dominaria is the reason why so many planeswalkers call it home. There are other planes, to be sure -- such as Shandalar, where mana flows like water; Rabiah, where desert kingdoms battle powerful djinns; and others -- but for planeswalkers, Dominaria is the place to be.

The sages of Minorad have a saying: 'To know a thing, change that thing.' Dominia may, to some degree, be understood from the perspective of a human, or even from that of a planeswalker. Its constant shifts and shimmies may, to some degree, be understood and anticipated. But ultimately, none may truly know Dominia for none may truly change it -- Dominia changes itself, and knows itself, and that is the nature of Dominia."